This past Saturday saw an event in Juneau unlike any other, soccer teams representing 40 countries from around the world battled it out round robin style at the Dimond Field House for the Juneau Soccer Club's 3V3 World Cup. Now I know what you're thinking, there weren't really teams from all over the world playing soccer in Juneau were there? Well technically no, they were merely representing those countries in the spirit of a world cup, but that doesn't mean they were any less motivated, as one young competitor related, "My team's Australia; and I'm trying to win."
The kids played 3 against 3 in 12 minute matches, with a very unique twist to the structure of the tournament. Tournament Director Carl Ferlauto tells us more;
"There are no parents, no coaches, no coaching allowed down here on the pitch so the kids take care of themselves, they take care of their substitutions, they take care of learning how to play the game, how to figure out each other and what you see is this incredible development throughout the day. But their coach is themselves and that's the focus, we're trying to empower kids."
And it appears to be working; we garnered a few comments from some of the competitors.
"I felt pretty good because I kind of figured it out and I've figured out how I was supposed to play and I knew that I was doing some stuff wrong when I was playing at first and then I kind of got into the actual where I knew what I needed to do."
"Yeah its way better than getting coached, I don't like getting yelled at if I don't do something right."
"Well, then it feels pretty good because then you know that you can play soccer on your own, and you don't need coaches."
Over 160 kids turned out for the big tournament, but that doesn't mean that's it's the end of the season for the Juneau soccer club. Carl Ferlauto explained;
"Soccer club is not a seasonal thing, it goes year round. You know we have competition during the summer with the big tournaments but we have developmental programs, goes throughout the entire year just about, it's not too late to come on out."